The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-08-10
A QUEER CREATURE.
COLD AID SHIyERING IN MIDS;N.
NER--WAT;oI AS 4 FEITTE1;

NER--W.ARoI AS 4 FEITTEli
When the Bleak Winter Comes--i can
ROGET Tells of the PeculiariticS of His
Physical NIake-up--A Puzzle to All the
Scientists.
WABASH, ND, July 24.-The people
of Wabash will not soon forget the awful
heat of last Saturday and Sunday, when
the brassy skies looked down upon the
white limestone which glowed il the lot
sunshine and sent up currents CT heat, ii
anything more unbearable than the
burning rays that descended from above.
On the evening Of that swelterirg S&5-
urday your correspondent met being
so strange and out OF harmony with his
surroundings that a repetition of his
wonderful story cannot fail to interest
the reader, even though that reader may
take no thought OF its scientific phase,
which, if it has a counterpart in the
whole world of experience, IS unknown
to the writer. Just at dark, the writer,
as he was passing the Wabash depot,
trying in every possible way to keep
cool. noticed a large-sized man standing
near the depot building, apparently Just
arrived on an incoming train. Eelooked
like laboring man, and would not have
attracted attention anywhere except for
one thing: He was dressed in heavy win
ter clothing, such as no sane man would
have worn with the thermometer at 9G
degrees, as it was then. Was he an in
valid, whose blood was too thin and poor
to be affected by the terrible heat, in
common with his fellows? He was too
vigorous and healthy-looking, and that
theory had to be abandoned. Was he q
tramp, whose wardrobe did not afford a
hot weather suit? He did not look Like
a tramp; besides, he had on surplus
clothing, even to an overcoat that he
might have carried. He did not look
heated. On the other hand, he had
much the appearance Of man chilled
and suffering with the cold. His over
coat collar was turned up about his ears
ard his hands we're thrust deep into his
pockets. The correspondent had not
watch him long until he grew curious
and concluded to investigate the phe.
nomenon. He accordingly took posi-
ton near the stranger and remarked,
while he famed himself vigorously with
his straw hat: 'Tis warm tonight. "
$50 they tell me-" replied the man in
broken English, with mixture of
French; 81 do not know"
''Dut you certainly do not have to be
told that it is hot tonight" " said the cor
respondent, who was family suspicious
that the stranger was trying to guy
him. 4 closer inspection, however,
showed him that the man was not suffer
ing from heat, warmly as he was dressed,
for there was not a particle Of perspira-
ton about him. 81 have not been warm
since last winter, except when [ was by
warm stove or in bed," said the stranS-
er in serious tone that banished the
idea that he was joking.
"Mine is strange case, he continued.
"Wollld you care to hear it; it is not
long?"
II should certainly like to hear the
history Of man who is not warm
tonight, dressed as you are in heavy
woolers, " said your correspondent.
"Well, then, I was born forty-two
years ago this month in northern
province of France, in Alsace, of peasant
parentage. There is nothing in my his
tory that is of interest, but there is
something il me that has interested
many-a popularity that has puzzled
science, and is without a parallel in the
whole world, SO far as I know or have
ever heard. The peculiarly consists in
the fact that when others are warm [ am
cold, and vice versa. I shiver with cold
under g hot July sun, and swelter with
heat amid the SHOWS Of winter. My name
is Jean ROGET, ard my father was a
laborer in brewery in Alsace, and had
large family, of which I was the
youngest, except one, q sister, who was
born three years later. None Of ny
brothers or sisters possessed my pecu-
liarity. My mother first discovered that
I was not Ike other children when / was
about one year and q half old, before l
can myself remember. My parents and
the neighbors were greatly puzzled at
the phenomena, but not more so than
were the scientific men who examined
me in later years. was the wonder of
our neighborhood as l grew up, Tor
while other children in winter went
about in heavy woolens, and sLiiveIed
with cold at that, I played bJ the road
side wearing thin summer clothing, while
my body was flushed with heat and my
face s1lfused with perspiration. Wien
summer came again, and birds s20G, and
the suns fierce rays beat upon the white
roads of A!sace, an my little companions
frolicked upon the green sward and
waded the brook, l cried with the cold
and sought warmth indoors. The seasons
were just reversed for me-.
"But when yo;, touched the ice and
snow, were they not cold to you?" was
asked.
eyes, as they would be TO you il the
summer time. The frozen ground, Toe,
was cold, but the icy atmosphere that
swept over it was sitting to me as a
sirocco. What Was most peculiar, per
haps, was the fact that the lower the
thermometer sank the warmer | got, and
the higher it arose the colder it seemed
to me. To prove to you thG,. i; was not
imagination with ~, .eet OF MY hand, ;"
said the :ttranye The scribe touched
il. 1t was as cold as ice, and the me..ou-
ry stood at 96 degrees.